Tag Archives: history

Reviews

Animation is hard work!

A wonderful video from the late 1930s, a newsreel, has been posted to YouTube. It depicts Fleischer studios in action, making a Popeye cartoon. In this age of computer animation, when things work differently, it’s a real treat to see animators in action, drawing for a change. Golly, cartoons were sure hard to make! We, as spectators, can’t possibly imagine the incredible amount of work that goes on to produce a 7 or 8 minute cartoon, but this video does a pretty good job of setting us straight on that subject. This is why old cartoons are still relevant. The sheer amount of work it took to make them qualifies them as works of art. We should do our best to preserve them and share them with generations to come.

[via Cartoon Brew]

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Thoughts

Who we are

➡ Updated 3/9/08: This post reflects the state of the site back when it was still called ComeAcross and I’d just started it. That’s no longer the case, as I’ve combined all of my content since at this domain. For more on that switch, have a look at the About page.

If I asked you who you were, it’s only fair to tell you who we are, or what my site is. If you already know, hang in there, you might learn some new stuff.

I’m Raoul Pop, and I launched the site with Ligia, my lovely wife. She doesn’t post much, because she works behind the scenes. She takes great care of me so I can keep on writing and working.

I launched the site on May 3, 2006 — not quite 5 months ago. Here’s why some of the content is older than 5 months. That same page has an explanation of the ComeAcross name.

So far, there are about 20-30 loyal feed readers for the Blog, about 10 or so for my Photos feed, and a couple for my Videos feed (although I suspect those are just my own subscriptions). There are about 8-10 really, really loyal Podcast subscribers, who’ve hung in there with me even though I haven’t published a podcast since May. Thank you! Who are you folks?

I started checking stats with Google Analytics on May 31, 2006. From that date until today (October 25, 2006), ComeAcross has had 8,927 unique visits and 16,055 page views. 14.75% of those visitors were returning ones. While most people were from the United States, if you look at the map below, you’ll see they’re coming from a lot of other places: Europe, South America, the Middle East, the Far East, and of course, Australia and New Zealand. A big, American HI to everyone! Google has been my biggest referrer by far (Sergey, Larry, thank you, and thank you), and I’ve also had significant traffic from Digg, StumbleUpon, and Yahoo.

ComeAcross Stats - Executive Summary

The top five keywords that people use to find ComeAcross so far are:

  • HP dv6000
  • Davison Inventegration
  • War between Israel and Lebanon (I don’t know why that post struck a chord, I didn’t think it was that good)
  • Funny animal photos (always a hit with folks, I gather)
  • Lasermonk (don’t know why this keyword is so popular)

ComeAcross Stats - Marketing Summary

The top five pieces of content on ComeAcross are:

ComeAcross Stats - Content Summary

I couldn’t have accomplished this without two wonderful products/services: WordPress and FeedBurner. They’re both fantastic, each in their own way, and amazingly useful. I am truly grateful for their existence, and the fact that they’re both free to use, easy to use, and feature-packed is a testament to the ingenuity of today’s web developers, thinkers and dreamers.

ComeAcross was once a dream for me. I dreamt that I could have a site where all of my content from my disparate sites was drawn together, and made easily accessible to anyone who wanted to read it, view it or search it. That dream is now a reality, and thanks to you, my readers, ComeAcross is shaping up very nicely.

I really do hope you’ll continue to read ComeAcross, and if you like it, spread the word. I’d like the site to continue to reach new readers, every day.

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Reviews

Troy (2004)

Troy (2004)Just finished watching Troy for the first time (yes, I know I’m about two years behind with my movie watching…) and several thoughts are on my mind.

First, how do you tackle a subject as epic as the Battle of Troy? How you handle Homer? How you you compress 9 years of fighting and conflict into a movie, even one that’s 2 hours and 43 minutes long? I would say it’s impossible to carry off, and given the circumstances, I think the director did a great job. I wasn’t happy about the shortcuts taken to shorten the battle, but how else do you compress 9 years into a movie? You take out about 8 or so of them by coming up with the wooden horse a little early, that’s how… What’s more, Homer’s poems are almost hallowed in academia. Yes, they’re dusty, but hallowed. Any re-interpretation of Homer’s work is bound to draw criticism, and from pretty vocal voices at that…

The subject matter itself is depressing. We know how it ends, and it ends miserably for everyone involved. There’s no happy ending anywhere. Mass audiences don’t like that, and they show it by not going to the movie. There are few epic movies to be made these days, since most of them have already been filmed, and plenty have even been re-made. The Battle of Troy (the Iliad) was one of few remaining unfilmed literary works. I can understand the excitement of filming “fresh” material, but if I wanted to make a movie from Homer’s poems and this was choice A, I would have picked choice B, the Odyssey. Now that’s a far better choice: happy ending, hope, though dim, is still in sight, glorious return home to a faithful and beautiful wife — now that’s my kind of movie!

It’s hard to carry a movie on the shoulders of a star that can’t act in a dramatic role. I know that’s really harsh, but I had the hardest time finding Brad Pitt believable in the role of Achilles. He didn’t act, he posed. When he didn’t pose, he glowered and frowned, and generally tried to fill a role that even he knew was beyond him. I could see it on his face. At no time was it more visible than in the scene where Peter O’Toole, as King Priam, begs for Hector’s body, so he could give his son a proper burial. The marked contrast between Peter O’Toole’s and Brad Pitt’s acting was, how shall I put it, very, very noticeable! Peter O’Toole was King Priam, and Brad Pitt was Brad Pitt, dressed in set clothes, trying desperately to find a way to act the scene.

The actors and actresses that really carried the movie but probably didn’t get “star” pay are listed here: Peter O’Toole, Brian Cox, Eric Bana, Sean Bean, and Saffron Burrows. What can I say, Peter O’Toole is amazingly believable, as usual. He is a true actor and a master of his craft. Brian Cox was so believable as Agamemnon, I wanted to string him up for his behavior in all of the scenes he was in. Eric Bana, what a wonderful performance as Hector! He let Hector’s honor, sense of duty, love for his wife and anguish at the role he had to play show through so well, that he was the real hero of the movie. Sean Bean, what a wonderful job as Odysseus, or Ullyssees (as this mythological character is known in Romania). I’m really impressed with Sean Bean. His performances are consistently great, at least in the movies I’ve seen. If I ever get to be in a movie, I’d love to be in one with Sean Bean. Great acting, Sean! I’ve always found Saffron Burrows charming and delightful in her performances. It’s a pity she doesn’t get cast in more principal roles. She seems to be stuck in supporting roles, and when she does get placed in larger roles, it’s usually in crappy movies like Deep Blue Sea, which I wouldn’t watch if I was alone on a deserted island and that was the only DVD around.

No, I didn’t forget Orlando Bloom as Paris. But he just didn’t stand out in this movie, certainly not like he stood out in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, or the Pirates of the Carribean, another soon-to-be trilogy. Maybe it was the script or the direction, or maybe he couldn’t get into the role, but I just couldn’t see him as more than a supporting character. And I also didn’t forget Helen, or “the problem of Helen”, as people put it when the movie came out. How do you find the most beautiful woman on earth? Seriously, people have differing tastes, and beauty varies in different nations and different ages. Plus, it’s really hard to find a really beautiful woman that can act. This is not a stereotype, and no, I’m not talking about blondes. I dare you to go out there and find the most beautiful woman, and see how well she talks, expresses herself, and how healthy (mentally) she is. Most likely, she’ll be caught up in herself, emotionally stilted. And it’s a given that she won’t be able to act. In hindsight, I didn’t like Diane Kruger as Helen, but hey, I didn’t do the casting, and I understand how difficult it really is to find a true “Helen”.

Given all of the issues I outlined above, it’s no wonder the movie didn’t do so well, and it’s still reviewed as average in most places. Yes, I know, it’s easy to analyze something in retrospect, but to be fair, I read one or two reviews when the movie came out, and that was it. I saw it for the first time today, and my impressions are fresh. I still think it’s a good movie, and in time, it’ll become a benchmark for what to do and what not to do in an epic modern production, but for now, it still has to drink its castor oil.

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Events

Happy 300 millionth, USA!

We turned 300 million today (people, that is) here in the grand old (or young, depending on your point of view) US of A. Yay!

Lots of us to go around, all of us immigrants (although some would think otherwise). We love big, open spaces, big cars, big houses, big meals and given our experiences when we go shopping, big clothes as well. (Is is so hard to make pants in a 30 waist?) We have it so well in this country, that we forget how badly others have it. As a matter of fact, we’re so busy doing so well (or trying to, anyway) that often we lose sight of what’s important (our loved ones, family, friends) in the pursuit of the American dream.

The opportunities in this country are amazing — like nothing else in the world — and that’s what’s caused us to get to 300 million. People are drawn to this country from all corners of the world, and after they get here, they multiply like rabbits — you know people, 2.2 children is the American way…

We’ve got some of the most polarized politics in the world. Everything is made into a political issue, and if possible, drawn to the national level, where Democrats fight against the Republicans over some minuscule thing while the important things, like our national debt, education, crimes of all sorts, infrastructure improvements, energy consumption, conservation of our environment, pollution prevention and serious medical research don’t get the attention they deserve.

The world wouldn’t be the same without the United States. Some say we meddle, and some say we help. I say we’ve lately been mostly meddling and sticking our noses in someone else’s pots — we’ve gotten into serious debt for it, too, not to mention we’ve made more enemies. Ah, but it wouldn’t be the US of A if they didn’t try to police the world, wouldn’t it? I guess you take the good with the bad if you live in this country, and you try to speak out against the bad.

So there you have it. A country like no other, and we’re 300 million strong! God bless America!

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Places

The National Seminary at Forest Glen

Just posted photos taken this summer at the National Seminary at Forest Glen, a historic site located in the suburbs of DC.

The history of the place is a pretty interesting read. After being bought in the 1730’s as a much larger property, parts of it were sold off, and finally, what is now known as National Seminary was sold to John and Vesta Cassedy in 1894. They set out to transform it into a girls’ finishing school. In 1916, the school was sold to Dr. James E. Ament after Vesta Cassedy died. John Cassedy then married a recent graduate of the school and lost interest in running it. In 1937, during the Great Depression, with the school’s student population foundering, it was sold to Roy Tasco Davis, who set out to transform it into National Park College, a place where academics and practical skills. He didn’t have much time to do this, because the property caught the eye of an Army general, who invoked the War Powers Act, condemned the property, annexed it to Walter Reed Hospital, and used it as a place where wounded soldiers could recover.

When the Army tired of the property, they let it go to ruin. They wanted to completely tear down the buildings, but local residents objected and managed to get the site designated as a historical landmark in the 1970s. Finally, a deal was made in 2005 to get the entire site redeveloped, the old buildings restored or rebuilt, and luxury condominiums built there. From what I understand, a development company bought the property, under the solemn promise to stick to the historical character and look of the site as they rebuild there. The site is now under construction, and many of the old buildings, too dilapidated to stand up, will be torn down and reconstructed.

Ligia and I visited it this summer (2006) and last summer (2005), and photographed the various buildings. It was also a great place to eat raspberries and mulberries. I still need to post the photos taken last summer, but I’ll do it soon.

(Added 10/19/06: here they are!)

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